`Manhunt,' the next step in video game violence

After mopping up sales charts and igniting controversy with its best-selling "Grand Theft Auto" franchise, video game maker Rockstar seeks to stir the vid-violence pot again with its latest release.

In "Manhunt," which went on sale last Tuesday, the player kills to vicariously satisfy "the Director," who whispers commands into the player's ear via an optional headset.

The ultrarealistic violence sets "Manhunt" apart on the gaming scene, unnerving some critics and pointing out anew how far video games have changed since Pong.

"It's going to show people stuff they haven't seen in games before, but in slasher flicks," said Greg Kasavin, executive editor of GameSpot.com, who was one of the early players of "Manhunt" after its release and called it "a great, not earth-shattering, game. There's a lot of blood, people getting strangled and killed with household weapons.

"When you see someone get brutally taken out, you feel a knot in your stomach. It's the feeling we look for when we go to see Schwarzenegger movies."

"The thing that shocked me most is how liberal the game is with using swear words," says Wes Ehrlichmann of Chesterfield, Mo., a gamer who bought one of the early copies.

There's more to it than that, said U.S. Rep. Joe Baca (D-Calif.), sponsor of legislation to fine those who sell adult-theme games to players younger than 17.

"It's telling kids how to kill someone, and it uses vicious, sadistic and cruel methods to kill," he said of the game, which is rated M for Mature and which he had not yet played but knew by reputation. Retailers are advised to not sell M-rated games to minors, just as box offices are supposed to not sell tickets to R-movies to young moviegoers.

Some major retail chains, such as Target and Wal-Mart, have register prompts at checkouts, reminding the clerk to verify whether the customer is old enough to be playing a game such as "Manhunt." Many video game specialty shops, though, still leave sales up to the discretion of their employees.

A brief survey of game stores in Chicago and California on Friday showed "Manhunt" generally selling briskly. But its publisher, Rockstar, Friday refused to comment on the game's content, how many units were moved in advance, or initial sales projections.

"I don't think that the choice to play the grittier games should be taken away from adult consumers that have a right to make up their own minds about what they want to entertain themselves with," said Victor Lucas, executive director of the TV shows "Electric Playground" and "Judgment Day" on the 24-hour gaming channel G4TV.

Games have been testing boundaries for decades, especially on computers, which for years were more powerful than and graphically superior to game consoles.

In the 1980s, "Custer's Revenge" starred a pixilated George Custer copulating with a bound and gagged Native American woman. The "Leisure Suit Larry" series awarded points for helping the main character lose his virginity.

In the '90s, consolemakers drew heat for the spine-ripping violence of "Mortal Kombat" and the skimpily clad women in the horror film-inspired "Night Trap."

After being dragged before Congress over those titles, the video game industry took action before Uncle Sam had a chance to.

The Entertainment Software Rating Board was created to watch over game content, and a rating system was designed to inform buyers of the degree of violence and adult content in games.

But violent games that sold big spawned more violent games, and as consoles improved in the late 1990s, so did the realism of game characters and their worlds.

Psychology professor Brad Bushman, of the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research, noted: "When you watch a violent TV program or film, you may not identify with the character, but when you play a violent video game, you are the violent character. And the level of violence in video games far exceeds what's in films."

The industry is quick to point out that as game players have grown up, so have their tastes. Ashley Vanarsdall, spokeswoman for the Entertainment Software Association trade group, said, "The average age of a computer and video game player is now 29 years old. Ninety-two percent of all games are purchased by adults over the age of 18."

Adult gamers say they know right from wrong.

"Few people remember," said Douglass C. Perry, editor of IGNPS2, an Internet gaming site, "but in `Grand Theft Auto III,' players have the choice to hurt or not hurt civilians. Running over hookers was never a mission or goal. People did that on their own."

" `Manhunt' doesn't have the same scope as those," Kasavin said. "They set you loose in a wide-open city where you can go where you want and do what you want." That's what sold 10.5 million copies of "Vice City" over the last year, he said, not the violence.

"I would be surprised if the game earned the same sort of controversy as GTA did."